Antigen Engineering Makes Liver Cancer Vaccine Effective In Mice
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - 09:50
in Health & Medicine
Liver cancer is among the fastest-growing and deadliest cancers in the United States with a 17 percent three-year survival rate. Vaccines help direct the immune system to attack invaders by showing it a representative substance, called an antigen, that the body will recognize as foreign, in this case, Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) – normally expressed during development and by liver cancer cells. AFP is expressed by about 80 percent of most common liver cancer cells but not typically by healthy adults. For cancer to flourish, cells must revert to an immature state, called dedifferentiation, which is why liver cancer cells express a protein during development and why the immune system can recognize AFP as "self." read more